


enlighten me

by the_royalmess



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Clueless Luz, F/F, Fluff, Lumity, Slow burn i guess??, amity is a gay mess, thats all I got
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27066403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_royalmess/pseuds/the_royalmess
Summary: Amity is behaving kind of weirdly and distances herself from the group. Luz, being a caring friend, decides to get to the bottom of it. Because she doesn't want Amity to bottle up her emotions or deal with her problems alone or hate her and oh my god what if she secretly hates her?
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 27
Kudos: 247





	1. flighty blight

**Author's Note:**

> hi I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing or what this is supposed to be but I hope you enjoy it?

Luz, Willow and Gus exit their classroom, chatting about homework and wanting to punch stupid Boscha in her stupid third eye, but Luz interrupts the conversation as she spots Amity across the hall.

“Hey, Amity. Amity!” she shouts, waving her hands around to get her attention. And she does, but as soon as Amity spots her, she turns on her heel and all but sprints in the opposite direction.

For a second, Luz considers running after her, but Willow’s hand on her arm stops her. So, instead, Luz faces her friends and asks a question that has been haunting her thoughts for a week now.

“Amity has been behaving weird recently, right? It’s not just my imagination? I feel like she’s distancing herself but I can’t figure out why!” She slumps against the wall, slowly and very dramatically sliding to the floor with a defeated expression on her face.

Willow and Gus exchange a look before sitting down on either side of her. Willow gently pats her arm.  
“Amity is…” Willow pauses for a moment, looking into the air as if the right words will magically appear there. Luz had never seen anything like that happening, but anything is possible at Hexside, right? “Amity doesn’t handle feelings very well,” she finally says. “Any kind of feelings.”

Luz sighs.

“But we’ve been friends for weeks! Why is she being like this now?” she asks.

Willow and Gus exchange yet another look Luz can’t decipher but decides to let go. There are bigger problems to be dealt with right now.  
Suddenly she gasps, her eyes widening, as a new thought enters her mind.

“What if it’s my fault? What if I said something wrong or was too pushy or _ugh_!”  
She pulls her knees to her chest and buries her head in her arms. She was faintly aware of her friends having a heated discussion entirely in aggressive hand gestures and pointed looks but she really couldn’t care less at the moment. What if it really was her fault? _I don’t think I can handle Amity not liking me._ Even just imagining that makes her heart sting in an odd way. _Oh god, what if—_

She is pulled out of her almost-spiral by Gus tapping her shoulder and Willow saying “Luz? Luz! Hellooo, earth to Luz!” until she reacts.  
When they finally have her attention, Willow gently suggests just talking to Amity.

“It’s the easiest way to handle this,” she says, “and way healthier than just worrying for no reason.”  
“Or doing something Luz-like!” Gus chimes in, although he immediacy cringes at his choice of words. Willow shoots him an angry glance.  
“I didn’t mean it like that!” he hurries to explain himself, “I just meant that you should try normal talking before doing anything else. Not that your plans don’t work! There are just…easier ways.”

As Luz looks into the faces of her new but closest friends, she feels something other than worry about Amity for a moment. Joy. Gratefulness. Love. Despite everything, she smiles.

“Thanks, guys! You’re the best!”  
They both laugh and Luz could swear she sees Willow blush before pulling both of them in for a hug.  
“Alright,” she says, after releasing them, “I better go and find Amity then.”  
And with her friends’ shouts of good luck from behind, she runs in the direction she saw Amity walk towards.

…..

Luz finally finds Amity in an empty classroom, hunched over some open books and papers. Luz walks around to the other side of the desk and puts her hands down.

“Amity, hey,” she starts, “I was wondering if we could talk for a sec?”

Amity sits up so suddenly that she almost falls from her chair. By the time she straightened herself and frantically tried to put away one of the books on the table, a blush appeared on her cheeks. And maybe it’s only Luz’s paranoid mind, but with the way Amity’s eyes are glancing at the door, it looks like she is looking for a way to escape.

“Luz! Hi! What—what are you doing here? I mean here, with me, in this classroom. Not here as in ‘here in this school’ because you go here now! Ha!” She laughs awkwardly. Her blush deepens. “Oh god, I’m talking too much. Sorry.”

“No, it’s alright, no need to apologize,” Luz assures her, “I actually followed you here because I wanted to hear you talk,” she says again.

The redness in Amity’s face creeps towards her neck as she blinks a few times, suddenly at a loss for words.  
“You… you wanted to talk to me?” she finally asks.  
“Of course,” Luz answers, “I noticed you were acting kind of weird and distant and I wanted to know what’s up with that.”  
“Oh,” Amity exclaims, “oH that’s what you mean. Uh I—don’t worry about it! It’s fine.”

Luz frowns. “It’s really not. You’re my friend and I care about you.”  
At this, Amity did a strange kind of yelp/squeal. _Aww, it’s so cute that she’s still not used to having caring friends!!_ , Luz thinks.  
“So how about after school?” Luz proposes. “Lessons start again in a few minutes and I’d rather not rush this conversation.”  
Amity widens her eyes and stammers out something like “oh yeah um great idea buuuuut uhh…oh! Right! I have this… family thing after school. So, I can’t. Talk to you. About me. Sorry.” She shrugs and nervously laughs in a ‘well, what can you do?’- kind of way.

“Is it something serious?” Luz asks, unconsciously reaching out to the girl across and covering her hand with her own. Amity’s face turns tomato red quicker than an illusion-student could have managed with magic, and she yanks her hand away.

The odd sting in Luz’s heart returns. _Does she really have that much of a problem with me?_ , she asks herself before shaking her head in an attempt to clear her thoughts. T _his isn’t helping._

“Yes!” Amity blurts. She starts putting the rest of her books back in her bag. “I mean no! I mean yes, it’s serious enough that I absolutely can’t bail but not like ‘life-or-death-serious’! Ha ha… okay anyway gotta go!! Bye.”

And with that, she leaves in a flurry of green hair and nervous energy.

Luz stays back, too stunned to do anything but think about her friend’s strange behavior. And blame herself.  
 _I’m going to get to the bottom of this_ , she thinks.

…..

Two days pass and no matter how much effort Luz puts into trying to talk to Amity, the latter always manages to get out or avoid her altogether. Luz genuinely doesn’t know how much more of this she can take. Yes, she is patient and yes, she understands that some people deal with their friends and feelings and problems in a different way than she does, but this getting ridiculous.

Even Willow and Gus agree with this when Luz shares it with them.

“That’s it!” Luz says, “I’ve had it! I tried talking to her and it didn’t work, so now I’m going to do it the Luz-way.”

Willow looks concerned. “What are you planning?”  
“I’m not going to give her the option of running away,” Luz answers, the gears in her head already turning in an attempt to make the perfect plan.  
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Gus hesitantly asks.

“Yes,” she says, “this is going to be good for her. She looks miserable now, bottling up all those emotions.” She lets out a gasp. “I can’t even remember the last time she laughed!! That’s a problem. Everyone should experience Amity-Blight-Laughter at least once a day. It sounds so sweet and her eyes get all crinkly and—” Luz stops herself.  
When she looks up at her friends, she sees Gus’ eyebrows have gone almost all the way up to his hairline and the knowing smile on Willow’s lips.  
“What?” Luz asks.

Her friends try to relax their faces in an instant.  
“Nothing,” they answer together, barely containing their grins.

“Anything else you want to get off your chest?” Willow prompts.  
Luz lets out a sigh. “I don’t know, I just… I miss her.”  
“She misses you too,” Willow says.  
Hope lights up in Luz’s heart. “You really think so?”  
“I know so.”

And that is all the extra encouragement Luz needs to start planning for operation ‘make Amity talk about her feelings’.


	2. phase one

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly didn't expect anyone to read or like this fic so thank you!! so much

Luz lets out a triumphant “aha!” and tries to jump up to share her plan with her friends who were sitting on the floor and playing with King. The only problem was that she had forgotten that she’s sitting upside-down on the couch and so she fell head-first on the floor—

“I’m okay!”

—and then proceeded to hit her head again on the table as she tries to sit up.

“Still okay!” she says in answer to her friends’ faces while moving to sit across from them. They look caught halfway between being worried and laughing at her. Not in a mean way, though. Never in a mean way. That hasn’t happened in a long time. 

“I know how to make Amity talk about her feelings!” she says. “It’s so simple, yet so good.”

“That’s why you were so quiet for the past ten minutes? You were thinking about Amity?” Gus asks. 

“No, I was quiet because I was  _ planning _ . If I went quiet whenever I thought about Amity I’d never talk,” she answers in an offhand way, wanting to get to the plan. 

Willow, Gus, and King stare at each other with a blank expression and then turn to stare at her.

“What?” Luz asks, starting to feel an almost-forgotten dread rise up from deep in her stomach. “What did I say?”  _ They’re not like the others, like before. They would never _ , she reminds herself.

Willow seems to notice her discomfort first and quickly reassured her. “Sorry! That was rude. It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.”

Gus nods energetically. “So, tell us about this genius plan you’ve devised,” he adds. 

King grumbles something about the attention shifting from him to Luz and goes to sulk somewhere else.

“Right!” Luz starts, barely noticing their little friend leaving, “so, at first I thought about asking her to come over because of our Azura book club, but I feel like that’s something she would try to postpone and/or avoid forever.”

Willow and Gus make sounds of agreement and faces of slight disdain at their green-haired friend’s childish behavior. 

“I have to propose something she can’t say ‘no’ to. And what is really important for dear Amity? School. Classes. So if I just go up to her and ask her to help me with my abomination class because she’s the best student, she’ll have to say yes!” She finishes with a flourish and almost-jazz-hands, then looks at her friends expectantly. 

After a short moment of silence, Gus speaks up. “That’s…that’s actually not bad.”

“Yeah, mayybeeee slightly manipulative but also necessary at this point,” Willow says. 

“It's not manipulative!” Luz gasps. “I'd never do that to her. Not on purpose. It's just for her own good.”

“Yes, okay, you're right.”

A determined look settles on Luz’s face. “I'll do it. Tomorrow.”

“You’ll do what?” a voice asks from behind her. 

Luz squeals and jumps, followed by Willow, Gus, and Eda bursting into laughter. 

“Eda!” Luz half-yells, but there's no heat behind it. How could there ever be? The Owl Lady had made her wildest dreams come true. 

“Not my fault you're so jumpy, kid,” Eda says, still chuckling. “So, what's happening tomorrow? You're not going to get into trouble again, are you?” she asks, the smirk on her lips and excited gleam in her eyes making her look like mischief personified. A principal's worst nightmare. 

“What do you mean, ‘again’? I'm an excellent student. Practically an angel.” Luz asks, still jokingly indignant, clutching a hand to her heart for dramatic effect.

This earns her three identical looks of “who are you kidding”. 

“Well,” she says, pointedly ignoring their reactions, “whatever the case, I'm not going to get into trouble tomorrow.” 

“Booooh!” Eda complains with both of her thumbs down, before letting Luz continue. 

“I'm going to ask Amity to help me with my abomination class to get her here and then, I'll slowly and smoothly change the conversation to how she's been avoiding m—her friends and ask what's going on with her. I call it 'operation make-Amity-talk-about-her-feelings'.”

“That’s a horrible name,” Eda dryly remarks. 

Luz tries again. “Operation no-flight-blight.”

“How did you make it even worse?”

The three students start cracking up, but they completley lose it when Gus yells “Operation take-the-fright-of-the-blight!”

Laughing almost too hard to produce a full sentence, Willow manages to wheeze out “Oper—Operation no-more-‘green-hair-don't-care’.”

Eda blankly stares at them, all emotion in her replaced by Tired. 

“If you weren't little baby children I'd charge you literal money for making me listen to that,” she says. 

The ‘little baby children’ in question might have been laughing too hard to come up with an answer –- Willow and Luz doubling over, clutching their stomach while Gus has entered a state of silent, breathless laughter— but none of them miss the affectionate smile on the Owl Lady's face as she turns away and walks back to her room, muttering something about "horrible puns" and "you'd think I taught her better. I'm bloody hilarious! Don't know what went wrong."

As soon as they all calm down again, they start mapping out the details of tomorrow, before jumping from one topic to another, just talking and laughing and enjoying each other's company until the sun is starting to set.

_I love these guys_ , Luz thinks as she half-listens to Willow and Gus talking about some party their parents once went to together. _I really really love my friends._

_..._

Luz finds Amity in the hallway at school the next day. 

“Hey, Amity! Amity” she shouts.

Amity looks left and right, either searching for the source of the voice or looking for a place to run. But before she has the chance to do anything, Luz reaches her and lightly puts her hand on the other girl's arm, just in case she tries to bolt again. 

“Hi, how are you?” Luz asks with a hesitant grin. 

Amity, seemingly (and begrudgingly) having accepted that she has to have a conversation now, answers in a distant voice. “I'm fine.” She doesn’t look Luz in the eye. 

Luz takes a deep breath and starts to speak before she loses her nerve. “So, I was wondering if you were free anytime soon?”

Amity opens her mouth, no doubt to decline, but Luz simply keeps talking. 

“Because I really need help with my abomination class and you're the top student and my friend so I just wanted to ask you if you could come over a help me out a bit?”

Amity stays quiet. 

_That’s not a ‘no’_ , Luz thinks, _and at this point, I'll take anything I can get._

“Please? Pretty please?” Luz pleads and for the first time, the furrow between Amitys brows starts to soften. The edges of her lips turn upwards ever so slightly.

_Huh. Interesting._

Luz decides to lay it on a bit thicker, throwing in her puppy-eyes for good measure. “Beautiful, gorgeous please with all the strawberries on top?” 

This finally manages to get a laugh out of her. Crinkly eyes and all. 

_Oh, how I missed the sweet, sweet sound of Amity-Blight-Laughter_ , Luz thinks. _Oh, how I missed sweet, sweet Amity Blight._

"You're such a dork." Amity says, "Alright, I guess I can always make room for school. And for y—“, just half a second before Luz blurts out what she's been thinking for the past week. 

“I miss you so much.”

Amity trails off, an instant blush appearing on her cheeks. 

“Oh,” she breathes. “You do?”

Luz looks at her, shocked and surprised and aching in a way she cannot put into words. Then her expression softens. 

“Of course I do, Amity. I like you. You're one of my best friends.”

Amity's blush, if possible, deepens. Then, she mumbles something under her breath. Luz didn’t hear, but she can guess what it was.

Still, she asks, “Sorry, what was that?” The grin on her face could almost rival that of Eda. 

Amity stares at her, all mock-annoyance and genuine shyness, before repeating what she said. 

“I missed you too, Luz.”

The smile on Luz’s face appears at the same time as the warm fuzzy feeling in her heart does. 

They look at each other for a moment, caught up in their words and thoughts and emotions, before Amity blinks repeatedly and abruptly pulls back. 

Luz doesn’t have time to analyze the spike of disappointment she feels at that, because Amity starts talking, a tick louder than usual or necessary. 

“SO, uh, when should I come over? Because I'm free like all the time—except for when I'm not! Which was also all the time but…in the past. Last week. Busy week. Ha,” she trails off. 

“Would today be alright?” Luz asks hesitantly. She doesn't want to scare Amity away. 

The other girl’s eyes widen. “Today! That’s…today. Obviously. Haha. Today is today. I…”

She closes her eyes and breathes deeply in and out. 

“I'd like that a lot,” she finally says, her voice even and her smile genuine. 

They are interrupted by the school bell. 

“Great!” Luz says before the rest of the students flood the halls to get to their rooms. “It’s a date! I'll wait for you in front of the school after class ends.”

And with that, she was pulled along by the mass of Hexide students. 

If she had had the chance to stay a second longer, she would have seen the awe-struck look on Amity's face, the blush having reappeared on her cheeks. 

Two seconds, and she might have heard Amitly whisper “ _a date_ ” as if it were the holiest magic spell she ever learned. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i haven't uploaded in forever!! just...life.  
> also this unintentionally turned into a filler chapter so sorry for that

Usually Luz isn’t as excited about the last bell of the school day as the other Hexside students - learning magic is one of the greatest things for her – but today she'd been impatiently waiting for the sound. Because the final bell means the end of lessons which means getting out of school which means seeing Amity. Learning magic is incredible, but Luz does have her priorities.

She walks with the flow of seemingly endless students towards the big open front gates and is just about to step aside so she could better spot Amity when someone calls her name.

“Luz! Over here!”

She turns towards the voice and finds her favorite green-head at the foot of the steps. Luz makes her way over to her and pulls her in for a hug before she does anything else. When she pulls away, Amity’s face is slightly red again.

“How come you’re out so early?” Luz asks.

“Oh,” Amity says, “our teacher let me go before the others because I already finished all the assignments for the day.”

Luz laughs. “Well, then I definitely picked the right student to help me with my studies. But I expected no less from Hexside’s best.”

Amity smooths her hair down and lets out a chuckle. “I don’t know about _best_ but—”

Luz interrupts her. “But I do. Just trust me.”

Amity blinks, “Okay. If you insist.”

The two girls are quiet for a moment before they both start to speak at the same time.

“So, we’re just going to walk to your place then?”

“We should probably get going because Eda worries if I don’t come home on time.”

They burst into laughter.

“Yeah,” Luz says, “let's go to my place.”

If Amity notices that the smile on the other girl’s face is different from the one she gets from laughing, she doesn’t comment on it.

_My place my place my place myplacemyplacemyplace. The Owl House is my place as well._

…

The two of them make their way to the famous Owl House, talking and laughing until the familiar sight of Luz’s home appears in the distance. Well, Luz did most of the talking and the laughing. Amity listened and chuckled and talked less often. Neither of them mind.

When they reach the front door, Hooty greets them cheerily. Or at least greets one of them.

“Oh, hello Luz! How was your day at school? Did you learn any new—”

Hooty notices Amity’s presence the same moment her face falls into a mixture of anger and deep disgust.

“She’s back! Please don’t hurt me. I’m just a young owl, I’m not ready to die yet!!”

Luz sighs and puts a hand on Amity’s shoulder. She feels her muscles tense and then relax. Amity closes her eyes and breathes deeply for a moment.

“Alright, but you’re on really thin ice, bird tube. One reason!”

She makes a step towards him. He backs up further into the door.

“If you just give me _a single reason_ , I’ll pluck all your feathers out. Understood?”

She stands right in front of the door, arms crossed, one eyebrow raised and clearly waiting for an answer.

 _She’s so dramatic_ , Luz thinks. _It's hilarious. I can’t remember how it feels to be intimidated by Amity Blight._

“Understood,” Hooty says weakly.

“Good,” Amity says with a satisfied smile.

“If you two are done now,” Luz starts, “I’d actually like to get inside now. I’m starving and you can smell Eda’s cooking from out here.”

At this, Hooty lets the door swing open without a word so they could enter. They step inside, take off their jackets and shoes because they are well-raised, civilized people.

“Eda!” Luz calls out, “We’re home!”

“I’m in the kitchen!” her voice comes back.

Luz walks towards the smell of fresh herbs and something tomato-ish, Amity following her a bit awkwardly.

As soon as she steps into the kitchen, a small dark something attacks her legs.

“Luz! Luz Luz Luz, I missed you so much!” King’s voice sounds muffled from where he’s pressing his face against her leg.

“King!” Luz explains, picking up the furball and hugging him tightly. “How’s my favorite little demon king?”

“I’m glad you asked.” He throws himself back, one tiny paw on his forehead, the other over his heart. “I’m miserable! Simply miserable.”

Luz swallows down a laugh and instead puts on a faux-serious expression. “What’s wrong, little one?”

King drops the dramatic façade and paints a sad face on instead.

“You’re always gone so long.” His frown intensifies and his hands flap around like a child’s “And Eda says I can’t go to school with you and she won’t give me enough attention and cuddles and I miss you when you’re away and you’re not allowed to go to school anymore!”

“Leave her alone, King,” Eda says, stepping away from the stove and coming over to pick King out of Luz’s arms.

She holds him an arm’s length away, on eye-level.

“We’ve talked about this. Luz likes school so she’s gonna keep going to school until she decides she doesn’t want to anymore. Until then, you have to live with this.”

King grumbles something and crosses his arms. He doesn’t look too pleased about that.

Eda stares him down.

“School, for whatever weird nerdy reason, makes Luz happy. So she’s staying.”

King stares back for a while, but eventually breaks and says, “Fine. Because it makes Luz happy.”

Eda nods and lets him down. Then, she reaches over to ruffle Luz’s hair.

“So, how was school, kiddo? Pull off any good pranks in my honor?” Her gaze wanders towards the doorframe, where Amity was still standing, an odd sort of expression on her face.

 _Amity!_ Luz mentally hits herself. _Oh no, I’ve been so rude and basically ignoring her for the past few minutes and now I’m a bad friend and—_

“Amity, right?” Eda asks. This stops the thoughts threatening to spiral into something ugly inside Luz’s mind.

Amity nods slowly.

“Come in, have a seat,” Eda says. She waves a hand and three chairs move back a bit, inviting them to sit down. “Food is ready.”

Amity still looks a bit uncomfortable, so Luz, without thinking, grabs her hand gently pulls her into the seat next to her, all while talking to Eda.

“I was wondering about that,” she says, “you don’t cook that often.”

“Excuse you,” Eda answers, whirling around and pointing a wooden spoon coated with tomato sauce directly into Luz’s face. Luz licks it.

King and Amity explode with laughter while Eda made a disgusted face, all fake-rage and repressed smiles.

“Damnit kid, who raised you! And in front of a guest…” She shakes her head and goes to put the spoon into the sink.

 _Poser_ , Luz thinks behind her grin, _normally you would have just kept using that spoon_.

“It’s just Amity,” she argues. “She’s a friend like Willow or Gus. They basically live here too so they don’t count as ‘guests’ anymore.”

At this, Amity’s eyes widen a bit but she relaxes her face almost immediately again.

“You could still use _some_ of your manners,” Eda chides as she fills all their plates with steaming pasta.

“And I cook!” she continues. “You think the food on this table just magically appears?”

“Basically,” Luz says at the same time King says “yes”.

Eda shakes her head again. “Unbelievable.” She puts the pot with delicious smelling sauce on the table and sits down herself. “Using my magical abilities is just as legitimate as using my cooking abilities!”

“If you say so,” Luz says.

She makes a move to get some sauce and notices with a start that she’s still holding Amity’s hand. The other one lets go immediately after she feels Luz move her hand and they both blush. Luz can’t help but feel a little…disappointed? sad? as she uses her now free hand to first pour some tomato sauce on Amity’s pasta and then on her own.

They fall into the usual pleasant chatter they share at every meal, this time with the addition of Amity, who doesn’t actually add that much but seems to have warmed up to them a bit, judging by her easy smile and occasional comments.

Luz is being more quiet than usual as well. It’s just kind of difficult to make small talk while thinking of acceptable excuses to hold Amity’s hand again.


	4. confrontation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is this in-character? debatable. is it realistic? eh. are there spelling/grammatical mistakes? absolutely. it's 2am, I have school tomorrow and I dont feel like proofreading.   
> enjoy though <3

After they finished eating, Luz and Amity stood up and moved to put their plates into the sink, but Eda essentially threw them out of the kitchen, assuring them that she could handle a few dirty dishes.

So now they were sitting cross-legged at the living room table, not unlike the way Luz sat here yesterday with her other friends, devising the plan she was currently trying to carry out.

There are a few beats of almost-awkward silence where none of them quite know what to say before Luz starts talking.

“So, uh” she says, “tell me about abominations!”

 _Smooth_ , she thinks. _Real smooth and natural, Luz._

Amity seems to order her thoughts for a moment before she speaks.

 _Hey, maybe you should try that sometime_ , an unkind yet familiar voice in Luz’s brain called out. _Be quiet_ , she mentally shoots back.

“Well,” Amity begins, “the abomination track is essentially about making abominations! Obviously. But you knew that. And it doesn’t answer your question.”

She lets out a nervous chuckle. Not that she has any reason to be nervous. It’s just Luz, after all.

“Okay, anyway,” she continues, “it’s really just about creating something from nothing. Creating life. Like Frankenstein.”

“Wait,” Luz interrupts, “you know Frankenstein? I thought that was a human thing?”

Amity stares at her for a moment, incredulous, and then shakes her head and explains.

“No, it's actually not. I heard it got really big over on your side though! Anyway, long story short is that Mary Shelley, the author of the original Frankenstein novel, was a student of the abomination track right here at Hexside! But that was in a time where girls weren’t allowed to study—”

At this, Luz lets out a soft gasp and puts her hand to her mouth.

“—so she dressed up as a boy and snuck into lessons.”

A small smile replaces the gentle O-shape her mouth was in before.

Amity stares at her for half a second before she returns to her story.

“But one day, she got caught and banished into the human world forever. She couldn’t do magic and she couldn’t build abominations, so she did the next best thing: writing a story, roughly inspired by her own life, and through that, she accomplished her actual goal of creating something that will outlive her.”

Luz lets this sink in for a second. Then, she breaks out in excited squeals and chatter before remembering that a) other people’s minds usually don’t run 150 miles per hour and b) that this was not the purpose of getting Amity here today. So, she calms down, breathes, and thinks before she speaks.

“That’s really interesting!” she says, “thank you for telling me.”

Amity blushes a little and hides her wringing hands under the table. Luz still sees them. She thinks about holding them again.

“No problem. I was actually worried I was boring you.”

“Never!” Luz says a tick too loudly and too suddenly. “Never,” she repeats, calmer this time. “You never bore me, Amity. I’ve told you before and I still mean it: I like listening to you.”

“Oh,” is all the other girl says. Her blush deepens. Then she shakes her head, a gesture she always does when she wants to clear her thoughts. It’s endearing.

“Um, anyway,” she says, a little more preoccupied than a moment ago, “abominations! Yeah. I think its best if I just start with the basics—”

And so she did. She talked about everything from simple history of the practice (originally created for hard labor and combat) to rules and limits (“an abomination is only as strong as the witch who creates it”) to behavior (“they’re not really intelligent but it's not their fault!”). Luz listens intently, she really could listen to Amity talk for hours, but in the back of her mind, she’s thinking about how to best change the course of the conversation.

“By the way, did you know that abominations are strongly misunderstood creatures?”, Amity asks, distracting Luz from her scheming completely.

“Huh?” she asks, genuinely interested but slightly confused.

“Just look at the name itself! Abomination means ‘a thing that causes disgust or hatred.’ That’s horrible! Abominations might not be the brightest star in the sky and yes, they’re not really pretty either, but they’re alive! Kind of. They’re alive because we made them so and I think it's absolutely heartless to create something and then call it disgusting or hated. It’s not even their fault.”

The tips of her ears are turning red, this time not from embarrassment, but from rage.

She seems to process the short rant that she just had, leans forward and starts to apologize hurriedly.

“I’m sorry, that was off-topic and not helpful but I'm just really passionate about it and—” she sinks back against the couch. “Yeah. Sorry.”

Luz is quick to appease her. “No, no, don’t apologize! I never looked at it from that perspective. I’ll make sure to be nicer to abominations now. Maybe say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and ‘good morning’.”

“Don’t you already do that?” Amity asks.

“Oh,” Luz says. “I guess I do.” She thinks for a moment. “Do you think they’d appreciate a gift basket?”

This makes Amity burst into loud laughter, the kind she only has when she’s alone with Luz. It makes her feel special and all warm inside and maybe a little lightheaded. For whatever reason.

Amity eventually stops laughing and says, “We just keep getting off-topic today, huh?”

_Welcome to my world._

“Yeah,” Luz says. Then she realizes that this is the perfect opportunity to shift the conversation to where she actually wants it to be and makes sure to pick her next words extra carefully.

“Speaking of getting off-topic,” she says, nervously looking anywhere but at Amity. “I’d actually like to get off topic for a while. Or, rather, get _on_ topic because um,” _How do make this sound not bad?_ “I didn’t ask you to come here to talk about abominations.”

She glances up to see Amity’s reaction. A quick moment of surprise, quickly replaces by controlled and suppressed emotion.

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Well,” Luz says, drawn-out way longer than it needs to be to buy her a little more time. Then she takes a deep breath and tries to get all of out very quickly.

“I noticed that you’ve been avoiding me? And obviously, you don’t have to like me or be my friend—” _you wouldn’t be the first and I’m basically used to it at this point_ “—but please don’t just ignore me without telling me why. The only ghosting I like is ghost hunting in the woods.” She finger guns. _I actually made finger guns oh my god—_

She closes her eyes for a second, clearing her mind. “Sorry, wrong time. My therapist once said that I use humor to deflect from my real feelings and—no. Also not important right now.”

She looks at Amity again, right into her widened eyes.

“I guess I just want you to tell me what’s going on. Without running. Just, please, tell me what I did wrong so I can fix it because I don’t want to lose you and I don’t want you to hate me.”

Amity blankly stares at her.

Then, brows furrowed and voice soft, she asks, “You think I hate you? That I could ever do that?”

“I—,” Luz starts, but she gets interrupted.

“And, even worse,” Amity continues, “you thought this was your fault? How could you think that? After you’ve been nothing but kind to me?”

Luz, for once, is at a loss for words. “I don’t know, I just… I didn’t know what was going on, so I assumed that I messed up somehow.”

Amity runs her fingers through her hair, tugging at it a little. It reminds Luz of how she sometimes lightly digs her own nails into her skin to ground or distract her.

Without thinking, Luz gently grabs the other girl’s wrists and lays her hands into her lap. Not quite holding them, but close enough to do it. Instead, she places one of her hands on Amity’s knee, ready to pull back as soon as her friend flinches or shows any other signs of discomfort. She doesn’t.

“Talk to me,” Luz says. Not rude, not demanding. But not exactly soft, either. She wants answers.

“…do you remember when the thing with Willow’s memories happened and I showed you the one of my parents telling me they’d crumble my chances of getting into Hexside if I didn’t stop hanging out with Willow?” She speaks quietly, almost whispering.

Luz nods as the pieces slowly come together in her mind. She reaches for Amity’s hand, to steady her and encourage her to keep going.

“So I guess I was just scared of them finding out about you and reacting similarly,” she explains. “And at first it was just about them sabotaging me from getting into the Emperor’s Coven but then…” she trails off.

Luz squeezes her hand. Amity squeezes back.

“Then I was scared they might take it out on you and maybe even make you go back to the human realm,” she finishes. Her gaze falls back into her lap, onto their intertwined hands.

“Oh,” Luz just says. She was so caught up in the idea that this is somehow her fault that she didn’t even consider any other possibility.

_She doesn’t hate me._

Relief washes over her and takes all the Bad Thoughts with her. With her mind reset, Luz can now focus on what’s actually important. What’s right in front of her.

She lifts Amity’s chin up with the tips of her fingers and looks at her until she’s positive she has her attention.

“Listen to me, okay? You’re a brilliant student and nothing your parents could try would stop the Emperor’s Coven from seeing that.”

Amity opens her mouth to disagree but Luz, fingertips still under her chin, simply closes it again.

“No,” she says, “that is a fact. I will not debate facts.”

Amity looks half-offended for about a second, just for a small smile and soft chuckle to replace her gloomy expression.

“And as for your parents trying to get me back to the human realm before…before I'm ready to go: they can try and pick it up with Eda. I’m sure she’d love to kick their butts, anyway.”

Her friend’s face falls again. “It’s not that easy,” she says, sounding bitter and… worried?

“But it’s also not something we have to deal with right now,” Luz counters.

A pause.

“I guess you’re right,” Amity says at last.

Luz smirks. “And I guess you’re Blight.”

The Blight in question looks at her with a deadpan expression. “That was horrible.”

Luz mock-gasps. “Excuse you, I am _hilarious_.”

Amity continues her stare, but Luz can see the corners of her lips uh upwards.

“You’re smiling!” she yells triumphantly. “I can see it.”

Amity quickly fixes her mouth, making her tiny smile disappear again. She’s only partially successful.

“You can’t see anything. There’s nothing to see,” she insists.

“If you say so,” Luz sing-songs. She’s still smiling.

And she’s still holding Amity’s hand.

They both seem to notice this at the same time, looking down and then up again, a faint blush spreading on their cheeks.

Luz quickly changes the topic before Amity thinks to pull her hand away.

“So, we’re good?” she asks, eyes big and honest.

“Yeah, Luz, we’re good.”

“No more running?” Luz asks.

“No more running,” Amity agrees.

They sit like this for a moment, side by side and no longer turned to face each other, as they let the conversation sink in.

Then Amity looks at her again.

“And, Luz,” she starts.

“Yes?”

“You’re not going to lose me, okay?”

She feels a comfortable warmth spread through her body. She wants to tell the girl next to her that she doesn’t ever want that and that the opposite is true as well, as long as she has any say in it. But, for some reason, she doesn’t.

Instead, an idea in her head and a grin on her face appear simultaneously.

“I guess I never Luz.”

She bursts into laughter at her own joke, and then again at Amity’s reaction to it. _Her face!_ It was almost as funny as the pun itself. Almost.

“Get out.” Amity says, voice devoid of any emotion.

“This is my house!” she yelps out indignantly, still laughing too hard to offer an actual argument.

Amity stares at her for another few seconds and then explodes into laughter herself. They laugh until there are tears rolling down their faces and then they laugh about that, too.

They might already seem very happy from an outside perspective, but it doesn’t compare to the euphoria and immense relief both girls feel at being okay again.


End file.
